17 May, 2017

Iraqi forces recapture nearly 90% of western Mosul

Iraqi
government forces, backed by allied fighters from the Popular
Mobilization Units, have managed to establish control over nearly 90
percent of western Mosul as they are battling to drive Takfiri Daesh
terrorists out of the country’s second largest city.

Iraqi Joint Operations Command
(JOC) spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told a news conference
in the capital Baghdad on Tuesday that Daesh was still in control of
“10.5 percent of... the right bank” of the Tigris River.

He added, “We reassure
everyone that... in a very short time, God willing, we will declare
the liberation and clearing of western Mosul and raise the Iraqi flag
over... [Mosul's] Old City.”

The Iraqi military spokesman noted
that Iraqi soldiers and fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units,
commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Shaabi, had killed 16,467
Daesh members since the operation to liberate western Mosul began on
October 17 last year.

Rasool went on to say that 679 car
bombs, 11 militant command centers, 47 drones, and 76 bomb-making
workshops were also destroyed during military operations in the
western flank of Mosul.